Understanding Survey Design: When Not to Do a Survey

Yikes! I talked someone out of doing a survey today. Or as the prospective client put it, “So, you are trying to talk yourself out of a job, eh?”

I’ve been asked that question before and it may seem like a strange thing to do, but ultimately the success of my business depends on my ability to provide value.

In this particular case the prospect was developing a new product and he wanted to determine if there would be a market for the product. He did not yet have a prototype and it was going to cost him approximately $15,000 to build one. I discouraged the use of a survey in this case for several reasons:

Without a prototype to look at, try out, and imagine, survey response would likely not be consistent enough to give an accurate perception of the market.

The prospect had only a general idea of the specific target market. He was looking to go to the general population with something that was clearly a niche product. Before survey questions could be designed, there needed to be more research done into a likely target market.

The difference between the cost of the market study ($6,000 to $10,000) and the cost of the first step, creating a working prototype, was not enough to justify the study. He would get a much better idea of the market demand from showing the working prototype to whomever he could than he would from asking questions of strangers asked to imagine the product.

I encouraged this prospect to save his money for building the prototype and exploring the market himself by talking to those he think might be interested in the product.